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Blair regime seeks to gag the press

Richard Norton-Taylor and Michael White

Fear of damaging revelations prompted the threat against newspapers

Richard Norton-Taylor

and Michael White

London: Fears that fresh revelations about disputes between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush about the Iraq conflict could damage Downing Street's intimate relationship with the White House prompted this week's unprecedented threat by the U.K. Attorney General to use the Official Secrets Act against British newspapers.

Senior MPs, civil service officials and lawyers were agreed on Wednesday that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith had ``read the riot act'' to the U.K. media because of political embarrassment caused by a sensitive leak of face-to-face exchanges between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair in the White House in April 2004.

Official charged

Lord Goldsmith acted after the London-based Daily Mirror said a memo recorded a threat by Mr. Bush to take ``military action'' against the Arabic TV station, Al-Jazeera. Mr. Blair replied that that would cause a big problem, reported the Mirror.

David Keogh, a former U.K. Cabinet Office official, has been charged under the Secrets Act with sending the memo on the Blair-Bush conversation to Leo O'Connor, researcher to the former Labour MP, Tony Clarke. Mr. Keogh and Mr. O'Connor will appear before magistrates in London next week.

The meeting between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair took place at a time when British officials and military commanders were expressing outrage at the scale of the U.S. assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Pictures of the attack shown on Al-Jazeera had infuriated U.S. generals.

The British Government was also arguing with Washington about the number of extra British troops to be deployed in Iraq at a time when it was feared they would be endangered by what a separately leaked U.K. Foreign Office memo called ``heavy-handed'' U.S. military tactics.

There were British anxieties that U.S. bombing in civilian areas in Fallujah would unite Sunnis and Shias against British forces.

The criticism came not only from anti-war MPs, but from Mr. Blair's most senior military, diplomatic, and intelligence advisers.

When Mr. Blair met Mr. Bush in Washington, military advisers were urging the Prime Minister to send extra forces only on British terms. General Sir Mike Jackson, head of the British Army, said while British troops had to fight with the Americans, ``that does not mean we must be able to fight as the Americans''.

Unprecedented

Lawyer Andrew Nicol, a media law expert, said on Wednesday he was unaware of any case going to trial where a newspaper or a journalist had been prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.

He said the Attorney General appeared to be trying to ``put down a marker'' to prevent further leaks or publication of further disclosures from the document already allegedly leaked.

On Wednesday, the former Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle tabled a House of Commons motion saying Mr. Blair should publish the record of his discussion with Mr. Bush.

Downing Street stressed that the decision to take action was ``entirely up to the Attorney General'' and confirmed that it was intended to ``draw a line in the sand'' on further leaks. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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